Saturday, December 31, 2016

The end of the year calls for a Skylab party, and enjoying food at the dinner table with good friends! From Dec. 28, 1973: "The three members of the Skylab 4 crew confer via television
communication with Dr. Lubos Kohoutek, discoverer of the Comet Kohoutek.
This picture of the three astronauts was reproduced from a TV
transmission made by a TV camera aboard the space station in Earth
orbit. They are, left to right, Gerald P. Carr, commander; Edward G.
Gibson, science pilot; and William R. Pogue, pilot. They are seated in
the crew quarters wardroom of the Orbital Workshop." NASA image.

As 2016 winds down, I'd like to thank everyone who read this blog and other articles I've written throughout the last year. Here is a short list of some of the most popular things I've written during 2016, if you'd like to revisit those pieces:

I've taken a bit of a break over the last couple of months (I was so busy, and needed to devote time to personal stuff, no biggie), but I am looking forward to devoting my time to new projects in 2017. I was delighted to be asked to moderate the Skylab/ASTP panel at Spacefest VIII in June 2017, so I am really looking forward to that!

As the 44th anniversary of the final Apollo lunar exploration mission winds down, we remember perhaps the most underrated facet of that iconic mission: America's command module pilot, Ronald E. Evans (aka "Captain America"). Born Nov. 10, 1933, the then 39-year-old Evans held down the fort for three days while his compatriots Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt completed the program's final scientific "J" mission moonwalks. Evans also undertook the program's last deep space EVA during the flight's trans-Earth coast period. Evans, who passed away too soon in 1990, still holds the record as the last human to complete a deep space EVA.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Lunar Lander, The Real Life Version, NASA photo from July 21, 1969: "The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, with astronauts Neil A.
Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. aboard, is photographed from the
Command and Service Modules (CSM) during rendezvous in lunar orbit. The
Lunar Module (LM) was making its docking approach to the CSM. Astronaut
Michael Collins remained with the CSM in lunar orbit while the other two
crewmen explored the lunar surface. The large, dark-colored area in the
background is Smyth's Sea, centered at 85 degrees east longitude and 2
degrees south latitude on the lunar surface (nearside). This view looks
west. The Earth rises above the lunar horizon."

The “launching to space” and “landing on another world” angles
of gaming have a heritage stretchingas
far back as the days of Apollo. While I
generally don’t like
Wikipedia as a source, there is a decent article that explains the
origins and development of these types of games, which usually
involved navigating a lander of
sorts among rocky portions of
a world. Beginning in 1969, the golden year of the first Moon
landing, those interested in computer-based gaming were looking to
land their own Armstrongs and
Aldrins upon the lunar
surface. One of the earliest
versions was even called Rocket, and
had a quaint, if mercilessly blunt, “Game Over” screen.

Commercially
released in August 1979, the arcade game Lunar
Lander –
which used coins to replenish the lander’s fuel stores – was
released, to soon
be
followed by another (very
popular) space-related
game called Asteroids.
Lunar Lander was
based on a 1973 game called Moonlander,
which
according to the Arcade History website, was “written
by Jack Burness in 1973 as a demo for the DEC GT40 vector graphics
terminal (based on a PDP-11/05 CPU). This game used a light pen to
control thrust and rotation.”

While
countless variants of this game have been created in ensuing decades,
Lunar Lander, with its
Apollo vibes and its simple LEM with a “flaming” engine, has a
certain “of its time” charm. It’s not as exciting or
visually stunning as more
modern space simulators such as Orbiter and Kerbal Space Program, but
it’s still stellar (okay,
dumbest pun ever).

Read
more about the Lunar Lander
game and its various incarnations here and here.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

"Listen, I know it's extremely difficult to fly with someone this handsome. Sorry, Owen and Al." NASA photo, dated Jan. 19, 1972: "Prime crew members of the scheduled second Skylab mission are introduced
to the media during a press conference in January 1972 at the Manned
Spacecraft Center (MSC). From left to right are astronauts Jack R.
Lousma, pilot; Owen K. Garriott, science pilot, and Alan L. Bean,
commander."

Nearly five years before ESA's Thomas Pesquet even existed, Jack R. Lousma was NASA's most promising entry in the "Sassiest Space Station Astronaut Awards," 1973. Selected to the astronaut corps in 1966, he made his first flight on 1973's Skylab 3 mission, becoming one of nine astronauts to live on the United States' mighty first fortress in space, all while being a total hunk, and a very nice fellow to boot. In all seriousness, Marine Col. Lousma's career was full of highlights, including 1982's STS-3, the only space shuttle mission to be landed at White Sands (this landing also tested the shuttle's autoland capability, but that's another story entirely). This was the third "test" space shuttle mission, which he commanded alongside pilot Gordon Fullerton.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

HAVE YOU SEEN ME LATELY? Development Model of Skylab Serpentuator Arm, dated Jan. 3, 1969. Found at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serpentuator.jpg

Sometimes
curiosity can be sparked by a single image. Last week, a member of
Space Hipsters posted a black and white, grainy,
late 1960s photo of
something called the “Serpentuator,” which I’d never heard of
before in my life. But apparently, I needed it in my life. The photo,
dated Jan. 3, 1969, added by user Ke4roh on
Wikimedia Commons, has a caption that states:

“The
Serpentuator is a 40-foot long articulated arm to aid astronauts on
extravehicular activities with moving equipment and astronauts to
particular locations outside Skylab. The Canadarm serves a similar
purpose on the Shuttle, though it is not as dexterous. This
photograph shows the Serpentuator at Marshall Space Flight Center
flat floor facility of building 4711 set to be tested in two
dimensions on air bearings in a manner similar to air hockey. At the
near end of the Serpentuator is a 5 degrees of freedom (5DF) chair
which allows a person strapped in to translate freely in two
dimensions as well as roll, pitch, and yaw. The switch bank to the
right of the chair controls the Serpentuator. Things that look in
this picture like jellyfish provide air bearing support along the
length of the Serpentuator. NASA caption: Serpentuator … straight,
tip control out for viewing, inboard view. Photographer Moss.”(This image is sourced to the book/DVD
Wernher von Braun, The Rocket Man: His
Weekly Notes, 1961-1969, edited
and researched by Ed Buckbee, released in 2010).

Naturally,
I started scratching my head, wondering more about the thing that
resembled a school of jellyfish rather than the sleek
“robotic arm” we’re used to seeing on
the Space Shuttle
and the ISS. Turns out, the “Serpentuator” (comes from the words
“serpent” - the device resembled a snake – and “actuator”)
was a part of Skylab before Skylab even became Skylab, if
that even makes sense.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Just seconds before chaos ensues, Skylab's Saturn V climbs into the skies on May 14th, 1973. NASA photo.

With rising internal temperatures and a trickle of electrical power,
it became apparent shortly after Skylab’s launch on May 14th,
1973 that America’s first space station was in serious trouble.
During the Skylab panel at Spacefest VII conducted on June 10th,
2016, astronauts Rusty Schweickart (Skylab 2’s backup commander)
and Paul Weitz (Skylab 2’s pilot) discussed the fixes that were
required to restore Skylab back to health after it had been severely
crippled by several launch anomalies. Schweickart (along with backup
crew members Dr. Story Musgrave and Bruce McCandless) devised many of
the repairs on Earth, while Weitz valiantly attempted to fix Skylab’s
jammed SAS-1 solar wing during a stand-up EVA using a special pair of
“bolt cutters” at the beginning of his crew’s mission.

Indeed, the fact that Skylab was able to be salvaged after suffering
several disabling blows – the loss of its micrometeroid shield
(MS), the complete loss of one solar wing, and the jamming of another
– was nothing short of incredible. But how did Skylab acquire these
near-fatal wounds? And was there another strange anomaly that could
have killed the whole mission? Read further…

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Occasionally
this blog features writing by other space historians and figures.
During the next two weeks, I am proud and honored to present a
history of the Soviet Buran space shuttle by someone who knows an
awful lot about it. Here's
the dirt on everybody's favorite shuttle, by space historian Jay
Chladek:

A Brief History
of Soviet Space Shuttle Buran, Part
One (CLICK FOR MORE AFTER THE JUMP!)

Sunday, July 17, 2016

NASA image: "Mariner 4 image, the first close-up image ever taken of Mars. This shows an area
about 330 km across by 1200 km from limb to bottom of frame, centered at 37 N, 187 W.
The area is near the boundary of Elysium Planitia to the west and Arcadia Planitia to
the east. The hazy area barely visible above the limb on the left side of the image
may be clouds. This portion of the feature has been enhanced in image m04_01h to bring
out more of the haze-like features. The resolution of this image is roughly 5 km and
north is up.
(Mariner 4, frame 01D)"

More Space Myths
Busted: There Were Mars Missions Years Before Viking

I was reading an online article recently (source redacted) that
characterized the Vikings as the first robotic missions to visit
Mars. While the Vikings made the first successful landings (read:
returning useful data) upon the Red Planet, they were far from the
first spacecraft to explore our planetary neighbor.

Several efforts to investigate Mars had been made by both the United
States and the Soviet Union well over a decade before Viking 1 sent
back its first image (of its foot!) on July 20th, 1976.
This blog post seeks to survey these missions, and their results
(successful, or not).

Saturday, July 9, 2016

You should go there, it is so nice, Mars.
You should be
there, it's out of sight, Mars.
You should see it, it ain't so
high, Mars.
You should be there, up in the sky, Mars.

- Title track from Dexter Wansel’s Life On Mars LP, 1976

Throughout the 1970s, pop culture references to “life on Mars”
were inescapable. The late David Bowie sang about it on his album
Hunky Dory, and musician
Dexter Wansel even made a sci-fi funk album called Life On
Mars, released in 1976 (the year
of Viking). Science fiction, of course, had bandied about the
possibility of “little green men” on our neighboring planet for
decades.

But did Viking really discover life
on Mars, in any way, shape, or form? Did
the “little green men” exist on a microbial
level? This
debate continues to this day. Read
on, and make your decision:

Sunday, July 3, 2016

From NASA: "Taken by the Viking 1 lander shortly after it touched down on Mars, this
image is the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars. It
was taken on July 20, 1976." Image Credit: NASA

“Time and time again I repeat, ‘It’s incredible.’ And it
truly is. Nothing before or after can compare. It is transparent,
brilliant, boundless. An explorer would understand. We have stood on
the surface of Mars.” - The late Thomas A. “Tim” Mutch, leader
of the Viking Lander Imaging Team, discussing his reaction upon
seeing Viking 1’s first image

I can’t speak for others, but for me, the Viking program had the
biggest cultural impact on how I viewed planetary spaceflight. While
the Viking landers weren’t able to rove beyond their landing sites,
and couldn’t take cool “selfies” upon the Martian surface, the
images from school science books and the January 1977 issue of
National Geographic forever
made an impact on my mind: something from Earth had made it to a
neighboring planet, landed
successfully, and made its
home there permanently. Along
with the two Voyagers
and ESA’s Giotto, the Vikings fired my imagination, making it seem
as if the
Solar System was wholly explorable.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

From Wikipedia: "Visitors at the 38th Paris International Air and Space Show at Le
Bourget Airfield line up to tour a Soviet An-225 Mechta aircraft that is
carrying the Space Shuttle Buran on its back." Posted by Master Sgt. Dave Casey on Wikipedia Commons.

I figured while I still have an audience after Spacefest VII (praise
the Lort, I didn’t scare anyone off), I might as well address the
dozens of links many have seen on Space Hipsters concerning the
Soviet Buran space shuttle, and the copious requests I’ve received
to write an article/articles about that subject. I’ll proceed with
this anatomy of a year-long struggle, and underscore how one space
program caused me to lose some sleep, not enjoy life anymore, and
cause me to inadvertently amass what is probably the largest Buran
paraphernalia collection in the United States… CLICK HERE, YOU
WON’T EVEN BELIEVE WHAT IS UNDER THE JUMP!

Sunday, June 5, 2016

From NASA: "This photograph of the sun, taken on Dec. 19, 1973, during the third and
final manned Skylab mission (Skylab 4), shows one of the most
spectacular solar flares ever recorded, spanning more than 588,000
kilometers (365,000 miles) across the solar surface."

Although its images are largely superseded by ones obtained by modern
solar observatories (such as NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory),
America’s first space station, Skylab, returned some pretty badass
images of our closest star for its time, and had a pretty
superbadass, human-helmed solar observatory, the first ever (and
only, as far as I know) of its kind.

Monday, April 11, 2016

From NASA, March 1981 photo: "The space shuttle orbiter Columbia is showered with lights in this
nocturnal scene at Launch Pad 39A, as preparations are underway for the
first flight (STS-1) of NASA's new reusable spacecraft system.
Astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen are in training for the
flight."

Today, we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the launch of the first U.S. space shuttle mission, STS-1. While many associate this historic event with John W. Young and Bob Crippen, often major players in space shuttle development (both human and machine) are lost in the program's dense, decades-long history.

Rowland White's book Into The Black launches on Tuesday, April 19th, days after the 35th anniversary of Columbia's iconic first flight. Photo Credit: Touchstone Books/Simon and Schuster

Enter author Rowland White, whose book, Into The Black, will be published in hardcover by Touchstone Books on Tuesday, April 19th. The book's foreword was written by astronaut Richard Truly, himself an STS-1 backup crew member. His book gives due credit to the figures who were, in many ways, just as responsible for the success of the first, very risky "test" flight. In addition, the book examines the complicated relationship between the "black" National Reconnaissance Office and how it contributed to one of NASA's finest missions (which, very possibly, could have turned into a tragedy). This Space Available was fortunate to interview White about Into The Black. Note: minor book spoilers included.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

From NASA: "On August 20, 1975, Viking 1 was launched by a Titan/Centaur rocket from
Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 5:22 p.m.
EDT to begin a half-billion mile, 11-month journey through space to
explore Mars. The 4-ton spacecraft went into orbit around the red planet
in mid-1976." Photo Credit: NASA

This itty-bitty version doesn't do it justice, but in my estimation, this is one of the most spectacular launch photos of all time (for a larger hi-resolution version, check out this link). The Titan IIIE/Centaur, THE magnificent launch vehicle of the mid-1970s, is seen here lofting one of the decade's iconic spacecraft on course for an unprecedented journey to Mars. In addition, the summer-y, late afternoon pastel colors and Florida palm trees are nice aesthetic touches.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

More than an astronaut, from May 22, 1962: "Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, prime pilot for the Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7)
flight, is seen in Hanger S crew quarters during a suiting exercise. He
smiles at camera as suiting technician Al Rochford adjusts his suit." Photo Credit: NASA

In my
estimation, Mercury Seven astronaut Scott Carpenter has been the
target of some rather unfair attacks from many people concerning his
performance during his 1962 Aurora 7 orbital
mission. That topic merits a
whole separate blog post in itself, but to be blunt, Carpenter's own
account is best told in his
autobiography For Spacious Skies, co-written
with editor and writer Kris Stoever (who
is also the astronaut's
daughter). Out of respect, I
think I'll let the man – who left us in 2013 – tell that story
himself. While that subject
has been somewhat “controversial,” a couple of things
cannot be disputed: Carpenter more than earned his place among the
greats in spaceflight history, and deserves respect.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom is inserted into his Liberty Bell 7 capsule on the morning of July 21, 1961. He would soon be embroiled in a controversy that lingers to this day. Photo Credit: NASA

In this installment of “Space Myths Busted,” I'll tackle a myth
that somehow still persists to this day despite many attempts to
debunk it: On July 21, 1961, shortly after splashdown, a panicked
Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom blew the hatch on his Liberty Bell 7
Mercury capsule shortly after an otherwise successful suborbital
spaceflight. A clearly freaked-out Grissom then commenced to flail
around in the water prior to being picked up by rescue helicopters.
Read more after the jump...

Sunday, January 3, 2016

From NASA: "An overhead view of the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit as
photographed from the Skylab 4 Command and Service Modules (CSM) during
the final fly-around by the CSM before returning home." Photo Credit: NASA

In the first of a series called "Space Myths Busted," I thought I'd take on the oft-reported myth that there was some kind of "strike" or "mutiny" in low-Earth orbit during the Skylab 4 mission, crewed by commander Gerald Carr, pilot William Pogue, and science pilot Ed Gibson. While the crew faced challenges due to being over-tasked early in the mission, nothing like a "mutiny" ever occurred, and with respect to the three crew members, it's time to set the record straight. Read more after the jump...